• The most common question I get is whether I am related to the famous Davy Crockett. I am not a direct descendant, but I am a first cousin five times removed, and I give great tours of the Alamo.

    I served six years as a communications officer in the United States Army after college and before graduate school. My primary teaching and research interests are in the field of American politics, with a special focus on the American presidency. My first two books concern the leadership and electoral dilemmas confronted by presidents from the "opposition party" -- the party that is not normally advantaged in a particular political era.

    I spend much of my time managing the extra-curricular activities of my three sons. I am also very active in my church. Faculty sponsor for the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society and Young Conservatives of Texas.

    • Ph.D. - University of Texas at Austin
    • M.P.Aff. - Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin
    • B.A. - Georgetown University  
    • The Opposition Presidency: Leadership and the Constraints of History, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002.
    • Running against the Grain: How Opposition Presidents Win the White House, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.
    • "An Excess of Refinement: Lame Duck Presidents in Constitutional and Historical Context," Presidential Studies Quarterly, 38 (December 2008): 707-721.
    • "Executive Privilege," in The Constitutional Presidency, eds. Joseph Bessette and Jeffrey Tulis, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
    • American Politics
    • American Presidency
    • Elections and Campaigns
    • Classical Political Thought
    • Conservative Political Thought  

    Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching and Advising, 2014

    Boy Scout troop committee member; Lone Star Summer Swim League team representative